Comedians Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan will host the ceremony at London’s Royal Festival Hall
By Steven McIntosh
Entertainment reporter
Stars of the small screen are preparing for the Bafta TV Awards, which will be held in London later.
This is Going to Hurt and The Responder lead the nominations, while Daniel Radcliffe, Kate Winslet and Lesley Manville are up for acting prizes.
Comedians Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan will host proceedings from London’s Royal Festival Hall.
Lewis Capaldi and Jax Jones will perform at the ceremony, which is broadcast on BBC One from 20:00 BST.
The event follows the Bafta TV Craft Awards, which saw This is Going to Hurt and House of the Dragon take home three prizes each.
Ben Whishaw in nominated for his performance in the screen adaptation of This Is Going To Hurt
Ben Whishaw is up for best actor for playing a doctor in the adaptation of Adam Kay’s best-selling memoir This is Going to Hurt.
He will go up against Martin Freeman, who is shortlisted for playing a police officer in his Liverpool-set drama The Responder.
The most recent series of Happy Valley was broadcast too late to be eligible for this year’s ceremony, but its star Sarah Lancashire is nominated for her performance in another series.
She is up for best leading actress for her portrayal of US TV chef Julia Child in the HBO drama Julia.
Radcliffe is nominated for best male comedy performance for his portrayal of Weird Al Yankovic in the biopic of the US musical comedian.
Manville is recognised for her performance in James Graham’s Sherwood, about lingering divisions in a Nottinghamshire mining village following the strike of the 1980s.
Winslet is nominated for I Am Ruth, in which she played a mother increasingly concerned about her teenage daughter’s depression.
Image source, HBO
Sarah Lancashire is recognised for her portrayal of US TV chef Julia Child
Cillian Murphy, Imelda Staunton, Gary Oldman, Taron Egerton, Maxine Peake, Billie Piper and Vicky McClure are among the other acting nominees.
Some of the biggest TV hits of the year can be found in the international category, with nominations for Wednesday, The White Lotus, The Bear and Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
Joe Lycett vs Beckham: Got Your Back At Xmas – which saw the comedian criticise the former footballer for his links with Qatar – is nominated in the features category.
Memorable moments
The nominations were announced in March, with the shortlist for this year’s memorable moment category following in April.
Nominees in that category include the Derry Girls finale, Paddington meeting the Queen for her Platinum Jubilee, and Nick and Charlie’s first kiss on Netflix’s Heartstopper.
The other TV highlights nominated for most memorable moment are the final roundtable of the Traitors, Max being rescued from Vecna in Stranger Things, and Sir Mo Farah revealing he was illegally trafficked to the UK.
Image source, PA Media
Clara Amfo (left) and Michelle Visage will lead the red carpet coverage ahead of the ceremony
Broadcaster and historian Professor David Olusoga will be the recipient of this year’s special award, which recognises those who have made an outstanding contribution to television.
The ceremony will open with a performance from DJ and producer Jax Jones of his track Where Did You Go.
Later, Lewis Capaldi will deliver the first TV performance of his number one single Wish You The Best.
It follows the recent release of Capaldi’s feature-length music documentary How I’m Feeling Now.
Image source, Getty Images
Lewis Capaldi will perform his number one single Wish You The Best at the ceremony
Other attendees on Sunday will include Ant & Dec, Claudia Winkleman, Daisy May Cooper, Greg Davies, Sharon Horgan and Susanna Reid.
David Tennant, Catherine Tate, Dame Harriet Walter, Dannii Minogue, Danny Dyer, Golda Rosheuvel, Adrian Lester, Motsi Mabuse, Oti Mabuse, Rebecca Ferguson and Roisin Conaty will all present prizes.
Best daytime controversy
There was some controversy around the best daytime category, after author and former Pointless co-host Richard Osman criticised the small number of nominees.
Just three shows are nominated for best daytime, including one – The Repair Shop’s royal special – which aired at 20:00.
“Daytime TV punches far above its weight in terms of ratings, cost and popularity,” Osman wrote on Twitter. “To have only two daytime shows on this list is a bit of a kick in the teeth for producers.
“If I made Bridge Of Lies, Homes Under The Hammer, Come Dine With Me, Lingo etc. I think I’d feel robbed. Why bother having the category?”
Image source, Getty Images
Osman, pictured with wife Ingrid Oliver at last year’s TV Baftas, criticised the sparseness of the daytime category
Osman said TV can be a “snobbish industry sometimes”, adding: “I love all three of those nominated shows (but the brilliant Repair Shop was on at 8pm).”
A Bafta spokesman told BBC News having three nomination slots is normal practice for categories with fewer than 20 submissions, adding The Repair Shop: A Royal Visit “was deemed eligible by Bafta’s TV committee because it was originally commissioned by Daytime and for its volume of output as a series”.
